News and Views: 2017–18 Season – Week 10 – 16 January 2018

By Haydn Thompson, with input from Mark Watson.

Results

The closest result in the A League was also the one that had the most effect on the table. Having gained only their second win of the season last week, the British Flag beat the Weaver by just three points, and this was enough to lift them into sixth place.

There were two close results in the B League. The Nags Head beat the Harrington 'B' by four points, while the Royal Oak scored just three more than the Waters Green Lemmings. The other B League match resulted in a comfortable victory for the Harrington Academicals over the Robin Hood.

In the C League, all three matches were closely contested – in fact all six teams were separated by just 18 points. Highest scorers were the Sutton Club, who were separated from the Pack Horse Bowling Club by the aforementioned 18 points.

Tables

Victories for the Dolphin Dragons and the British Flag meant that they both climbed above the Weaver, who are now in the A League's relegation zone.

In the B League, the bottom three teams all lost, while the Plough Horntails (fourth from bottom) didn't play. The only change in the B League table was that the Nags Head moved back into first place ahead of the Waters Green Rams (who didn't play) on goal difference.

The two C League teams that didn't play – the Park Taverners and the Cock Inn – each dropped a place, overtaken by the Sutton Club and the Park Timers respectively.

Individual

It was another week of modest individual scoring: top scorer was Robin Morrell with 42. Robin proved his value to the Dolphin Dragons – they've won every game he's played in this season, and lost every one he hasn't.

On the other hand there were twelve personal bests this week: Tim Massey (36 – his second on the trot), Phil Davies and Chris Butler (both 33), Geoff Shaw, Tony Browne and Trisha Ashton (30), John Stein and Mitch Moores (27), Emma Griggs (24), Mike Hewitt and Martin Biss (21), and Sunil Peck (18).

There were 24 "personal worsts" this week – compared with 42 last week.

A League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

B League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

C League

Results

Table

Individual Top Ten

Cars & Vans 4U Question Setters' Trophy

For the full spreadsheet, please click here.

The Specialist questions, set by the Cock Inn, seem to have been quite hard - teams scoring on average 95% of their average scores. The Plough Horntails' General Knowledge set were only slightly easier (96%), but because we're comparing two different sets of scores (one for Specialist questions and one for General Knowledge) they have scored rather better here for Difficulty.

Both sets seem to have suffered from bias, but each team had the benefit in one half of the quiz so the match results are unlikely to have been affected. Both sets were biased towards the teams that went second (103% to 87% in the Specialists and 103% to 89% in the General Knowledge).

Overall there was a very slight bias towards the teams that went first in the Specialist questions (96% to 95%). Even so, the majority of games were won by the teams going second. The teams that won by going "first first" were the Dolphin Dragons, the Harrington Academicals, the Royal Oak and the Sutton Mutton.

The General Knowledge questions were slightly more popular than the Specialists. Not for the first time, both sets got their lowest Entertainment mark from the C League.

An indirect but significant consequence of the low marks scored by this week's questions for Balance (and, to a lesser extent, for Difficulty) is that the British Flag's Specialist questions have returned to the top of the table, by the smallest of margins. The reasons for this are complicated, but in short: this week's questions have set a new benchmark for the biggest difference in balance, and because the match scores were so much higher on the Ox–fford's questions than on the Flag's, this has more effect on the Ox–fford's score than any other. Last week the Ox–fford's score for Balance was 7.75 and the Flag's was 9.77, and the Ox–fford's total score was 24.97 to the Flag's 24.42 - a lead of 0.55. This week the Flag lead by just 0.07. 

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2018